30 November 2015

Fondant potatoes
are so lovely, but oh so difficult to get just right. Mine were just
fine this time, although a bit more browning would've been nice. I
will have to keep trying to get the perfect fondants one day.

With interest I
read Felicity Cloake's recent articleHow to make the perfect fondant potatoes and everyone can decide based on that what
combinations to use. I didn't make my fondant potatoes the same way
as Felicity, maybe next time. I first fried the potatoes in butter,
which had a small addition of oil in it and then cooked the potatoes
in vegetable stock with thyme and garlic. I always think that the
stock is the best part in this dish and I always save it either for
just some drinking broth or some other recipe, it's so good! Am I the
only one who drinks fondant potato broth?

I served my
fondants with roasted carrots and a romanesco bake. Finally I bought
my first romanesco! It was quite good, a bit of a mix between
cauliflower and broccoli, and I really like the weird look of it with
its pointy florets. I steamed the florest first and then baked with
cheese. I also added a little bit of pre-fried onion and garlic in
there and salt and pepper.

26 November 2015

I bought a new
grill pan, a second one, which is a bit smaller than my first one.
It's a neat little pan and it obviously inspired me to char-grill
some vegetables. Then I was considering what to have with them and
thought of homemade falafel, which are always nice. That's how this
dish came to life, simple but oh so tasty!

As the making
method for the falafel I chose baking in the oven in order to avoid
an additional oil addition. They should be put into the oven only
briefly under high heat so that they get some colour, but not too
long that they dry out. All components are already cooked before, so
they don't need any extra cooking. Have a look at my recipe below,
which should make about 10 falafel.

Ingredients

1 cup dried
chickpeas

1 can broad beans

3-4 garlic cloves

1 small onion

1 tsp vegetable
oil

15 g fresh parsley

15 g fresh
coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground
coriander

½ tsp chilli
flakes

1 tsp salt

Sides:

Hummus

Tomatoes

Carrots

Baby bell peppers

Munchkin pumpkin

Halloumi

Method

Soak the chickpeas
overnight and then cook until done.

Chop the garlic
and onion and pre-cook them a little in oil in a pan.

Mix the chickpeas,
broad beans, garlic onion and the spices and mash them into a mixture
that sticks well together. I like to leave some of the chickpeas
whole in this process.

Shape falafel from
the mixture and place them on a baking tray.

Bake them in the
oven at 250 C for a few minutes until the falafel have received some
colour. Don't bake them too long, as they can then dry up.

I served my
falafel with some homemade hummus and char-grilled vegetables and
halloumi. I wanted to try my new grill pan, and indeed it was very
nice to use.

I'm entering this
recipe to this month's Eat Your Greens, a vegetarian cooking
and blogging challenge hosted by Shaheen from A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table. The greens here are the broad beans and the lovely fresh
herbs parsley and coriander.

23 November 2015

Turnips, the
unsung heroes of the root vegetable family, the less appreciated
vegetable. However this hasn't always been the case, already Pliny
the Elder (c. AD 23 – AD 79) considered the turnip as one of
the most important vegetables of his day, rating it "directly
after cereals or at all events after the bean, since its utility
surpasses that of any other plant". Very high praise for the
turnip there.

Like Pliny the
Elder, I love turnips, they are so nice fresh for example with a dip
like hummus. They also made a great addition to this vegan salad,
where I combined them with carrot, pistachios, mixed leaves, warm
lentils and an onion dressing. I decided to add them as thin shavings
to the salad. This was a very nice salad in the end and I'm happy to
eat the rest of it at work tomorrow.

I'll
share this recipe with Vegetable Palette,
a vegetarian cooking challenge hosted by Shaheen from A2K - A Seasonal Veg Tableand am
excited to see whether anyone else has chosen the humble turnip as
their white vegetable.

21 November 2015

It's time to
transform a classic British dish into a vegetarian version.
Vegetarian fish and chips, what an earth, you may think! Well, my
version doesn't have much at all to do with fish, but I still wanted
to keep the name of the traditional dish. I used Halloumi cheese as
fake fish in this recipe and it actually worked out rather nicely for
the taste, texture and looks. It was rolled in my special cider
batter before deep frying. I served my fake fish with very chunky
hand-cut oven-baked skin-on chips (wow that's many hyphens, not sure,
if they are all really needed!), peas and spicy chilli mayo.

Here's how this
dish came together.

The chips:

2 large baking
potatoes

Vegetable oil

Smoked paprika

Salt

Cut the baking
potatoes into chunky chips, brush them with vegetable oil, sprinkle
with smoked paprika and salt and bake in the oven until done.

The veggie fish:

250 g halloumi

Vegetable oil

Wheat flour

Smoked paprika

White papper

Bicarbonate of soda

Dry cider

Cut the halloumi into thin slices and cook them in vegetable oil on
both sides until golden brown. I really wanted to add this step, as I
don't fancy undercooked halloumi, it always needs to be properly
cooked for me.

Make the batter by whisking flour, smoked paprika, white pepper,
bicarbonate of soda and dry cider together into a smooth, but not too
runny, batter. I can't really give the amounts here, as I just mixed
it all together and it seemed to be the perfect texture. You can add
more flour or cider, if the texture isn't quite right. The bottomline
is that it should easily coat the halloumi for deep frying.

Heat enough vegetable oil in a deep pan so that it will cover the
halloumi slices. Coat the halloumi slices with the batter and put
them into the hot oil. They should get golden brown and crispy fairly
quickly. Then transport them onto a kitchen roll to tap off any
excess oil.

The sides:

Gran Luchito Chilli Mayo (this added a nice spicy kick to the dish)

As many frozen peas as you want to eat, cooked with a little butter,
marjoram and salt.

And this was it, very tasty, a very good option for the traditional
fish and chips! Have a great weekend everyone!

17 November 2015

Stuffed peppers
are perfect for this season, so comforting and warm straight from the
oven. Even though they aren't the most innovative vegetarian dish, I
really enjoy them with the right filling. I stuffed my huge Lamuyo
pepper halves with a pearled spelt, carrot, tomato and pea mix and
some cheese of course. I like my stuffed peppers well done with a
succulent filling. I didn't need any sides for this, as the peppers
were so huge.

Ingredients

2 Lamuyo peppers

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 carrot

100 g cherry
tomatoes

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup pearled
spelt

500 ml vegetable
stock

1 cup frozen peas

50 g vegetarian
pasta cheese

Salt

Ground black
pepper

Method

Cut the peppers
into halves and chop the onion, garlic, carrot and tomatoes finely.

Heat the olive oil
in a pan and start cooking the onion, garlic and carrot there. Once
these are softened, also add the tomatoes and cook for a while
longer.

Add the pearled
spelt and a third of the vegetable stock and simmer under the lid.
Add more vegetable stock once it has absorbed and cook until the
spelt is done.

Stir in the frozen
peas and the grated cheese in the end.

Fill the pepper
halves with the spelt mix and bake at 200 C until the peppers are
roasted. Add more cheese on the top, if you prefer.

16 November 2015

I have been
wanting to make a Mexican style rice for a while now and finally got
around to it. I added a bit more vegetables to it than normally
necessary, but I thought that it was very nice and perfectly good as
a standalone dish. This dish is made a lot like a rice pilaf, so that
the rice cooks with the vegetables and spices and absorbs all the
lovely flavours. I added a subtle spiciness to the dish.

Ingredients

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

300 g tomatoes

2 romano peppers

1 can black beans

1 can sweetcorn

Olive oil

Vegetable stock
powder

Salt

Chilli flakes

Ground coriander

Ground cumin

1,5 cup brown rice

Tomato purée

Fresh coriander

Sourcream
(optional)

Method

Chop the onion,
garlic, tomatoes and romano peppers finely and start cooking them in
olive oil.

Add the black
beans and sweetcorn to the pan followed by the spices and mix for a
couple of minutes.

Then also add the
rice and cover the mix with water and let simmer until the rice is
cooked.

Towards the end
add the tomato purée and fresh coriander. Taste the seasoning and
add anything that's needed more.

15 November 2015

Here is a little
post about my recent cookings, new food and cooking utensils in my
kitchen. I try to make such posts more often, as I enjoy reading
similar posts to hear about nice products.

I didn't buy much
foodie stuff on my recent trip to Germany, as I was only travelling
with a hand luggage, but here are some of the items that I brought
with me. I just had to get this cute hedgehog cookie cutter as an
addition to my wide selection of hedgehog themed kitchen items. I
can't wait to use it for some gingerbread cookies soon.

I really like
Spätzle, traditional southern German egg noodles, very much
and often make my own ones, but since it was now available I bought a
packet of the ready made ones. They'll be very handy for some weekday
meals.

My partner
insisted on this mustard from Düsseldorf that is flavoured with the
local dark beer Altbier. I doubt that I'll be using that
myself, but then there'll be more left for him.

Halloween was a
while ago, but I even still have some of these chocolates left. They
are extremely tasty and that's why I only want to eat one every now
and again as a special treat.

I also still have
some pumpkin ales left, but I don't think that those are strictly for
Halloween either. This Pumpkin IPA by Flying Dog is just an exquisite
drink, perfect for this season.

Recently I bought
this tasting and distilling logbook for whiskey tasting notes. I
haven't started filling it yet, but it's a neat little book.

These food labels
from Ikea are really nice. They could be used for some foodie gifts
for Christmas.

My partner makes a
great spinach pasta with sun-dried tomatoes and olives. It's one of
his regular dishes and I'm always more than happy to eat it.

So, that was a
little overview of some of my new acquaintances and purchases. Have a
nice week everyone!

12 November 2015

I'm always happy
when I can use absolutely everything in the cupboard and nothing goes
to waste. This can be very challenging with a varying appetite like
mine and fondness to fresh produce. Sometimes really creative and
even odd dishes are created through this method. This one wasn't
quite as adventurous, I just happened to have a couple of tortilla
wraps in an open packet that had to come away, so I decided to wrap
Monday's dinner, Harlequin squash spelt risotto with halloumi,
into it and bake in the oven until the tortilla was crispy. This was
indeed a nice tasting lunch for the next day. Otherwise I packed into
my lunchbox for that day a few apple slices, salty potato rings and
a Leicester cheese stick. I was very happy eating these things.

How do you like
recycling food and creating new dishes from left-overs?

9 November 2015

I was happy to
obtain some harlequin squashes again, and decided to make a spelt
risotto with one of them. A spelt risotto is a wonderful weekday dish
even though it takes slightly longer to make. I'm always so happy to
have some of it left to take with me to work. This is a very filling
and tasty dish and I can only recommend pearled spelt. However I just
noticed how many spelt dishes I have posted again recently and should
use some other main ingredients soon. I promise that it will be the
case! First, here's today's recipe.

Ingredients

1 harlequin squash

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 bell pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

20 g butter

1 cup pearled
spelt

1 glass white wine

1 l vegetable
stock

Salt to taste

Ground black
pepper to taste

40 g vegetarian
pasta cheese

250 g halloumi + 1
tsp vegetable oil (optional)

Method

The method to this
dish is my basic risotto method, nothing complicated about it, just
some patience is needed.

Heat the vegetable
stock in a separate pot.

Chop the harlequin
squash into cubes. Also chop the onion, garlic and bell pepper.

Heat olive oil in
a pan and start cooking the onion there for a few minutes. Then add
the bell pepper and garlic and cook for further couple of minutes
followed by the harlequin squash.

Add the butter and
pearled spelt into the pan and mix for a few moments. Then add the
wine and let it absorb.

Add a few ladles
of the hot vegetable stock and let simmer under the lid. Stir often
and keep making stock additions.

When all the
components are cooked nicely and the flavours have blended, season
the dish and add some grated vegetarian pasta cheese to it.

Serve with
pan-fried halloumi slices like I did, if you feel like it. In that
case no salt addition is needed to the risotto, or just a little bit.

7 November 2015

Oh what a week
this has been! It was so busy and tiring, but now it's finally
weekend and time to relax and enjoy good food. I think that today I
want to eat out, but haven't decided on the restaurant/café/pub yet.
What are your plans for the weekend?

I have already
once posted a recipe for this Scottish breakfast classic, tattie scones that can easily be made from left-over potato mash. Tattie
scones are such a nice breakfast, even if you'll have to boil the
potatoes extra for them like I did (I never have left-over mash, as I
always eat all of it). This time I made the tattie scones with spelt
flour, so they became a bit nuttier and more wholesome. I also left
the potato skins in the mash.

Ingredients

500 g floury
potatoes

50 g butter

125 g spelt flour

Sprinkle of salt

Method

Boil the potatoes
with the peels on and then mash them.

Mix the potato
mash with the flour, butter and salt once it has cooled a little.

Who is The VegHog?

A vegetarian hobby cook and urban gardener born in Finland, currently living in Denmark. I try to develop my cooking skills by making a wide variety of veggie dishes, some of them traditional and some new creations. My favourites include veggie burgers, squashes, organic and local produce, cider, spelt, rye, pizzas, pasta dishes, risottos and sea-buckthorn.
Follow theveghog on Instagram and @TheVegHog on Twitter!